Aastha & Cris
1. Design & Planning:
Since this project was originally due around carnival time, we decided to go for a carnival theme with a game called “shoot the moving ducks! – winner takes all”.
We started with some handmade drawings about how we wanted our project to look like. Once we reached the final idea and figured out the motion necessary, we looked into different mechanical models that we could use to move the ducks side to side. We ended up choosing #90.
For our low fidelity prototype we used a cereal box, Q-tips and some tape to stick everything together. We tried to recreate the motion of the mechanical model #90 after watching some videos on YouTube. What we created made sense but was not fully working because the cardboard was too weak. Therefore, we moved into a medium fidelity prototype (Figure 1) by using a thicker piece of cardboard and some wood. It was thanks to this prototype when we were able to fully understand how the motion of our project was going to be.
Figure 1: Medium fidelity prototype
All laser cutting files were created in Adobe Illustrator and we decided to double the individual pieces to add more depth and strength to the model.
2. Laser Cutting and Vinyl Cutting:
Laser cutting this time around took more effort and time due to the lack of equipment and issues with the one that was working. We used the Epilog Pro for the entirety of the project. Since the medium fidelity prototype did not need to be perfect, we tested different speed settings, starting with 4 and going down to 2, while keeping the power and frequency constant, 100% and 10f, respectively. For the initial cut on speed 4, we had to re-do the cut three times before realizing that the lens was dirty as the laser did not cut in a straight line. Based on the tests, speed 3 seemed to cut the best without burning the wood too much.
For the final prototype, we assembled the necessary pieces like a tetris puzzle on Illustrator to maximize the space on one plank of wood. Everything besides two sides of our exterior box fit within that frame. Using speed 3, most of the pieces were cut easily. There was a struggle with removing a few of the important mechanical model pieces (Figure 2). Even after recutting using the same settings, we had to use a box cutter to pop out the wood pieces.
Figure 2: Image showing how the laser cut didn’t cut everything properly at first
Once the laser cut pieces were done, we used the vinyl cutter for the red targets, accents for the ducks (eyes and wings), and gold coins for the treasure chest name plate.
3. Gluing, Painting & Assembling:
Once all the pieces were laser cut, the next step was to sand down the ducks and the mechanical model, as not all of them came out perfectly. After that, we glued all the repeated pieces together and sanded down some edges to make them smoother. We decided to paint the pieces before assembling as we were going to include many different colors in our project and it was going to be easier if this step was done before:
- For the box we used normal blue paint mixed a little bit with black and light spray paint to make a gradient. In this step we had to be very careful to not get paint on the edges as these edges had to fit together afterwards.
- For the ducks themselves we used yellow spray paint and covered with tape the target and the stick while they were being sprayed. The bigger duck has a different tone of yellow because there was not enough paint for the remaining ducks, therefore, we had to do the baby ducks in a lighter yellow tone. For the targets we used white spray paint and then added the red vinyl on top.
The downside of using spray paint was that we couldn’t paint the sides of the pieces well enough. We tried to paint them with a sponge, but still we could not get all of them to be covered in paint.
After the paint dried, we started assembling all the pieces together. We directly jumped into building the internal mechanism that was going to be hidden inside the box. We started by gluing the static pieces together that would help the mechanical model slide along its axis. Next, we assembled the rotating dowel that controls the entire mechanism. Lastly, we placed the ducks into the box, glued the circles and ovals to the rod (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Assembled mechanism
Once everything was working we closed the box by adding glue to the edges to reinforce the joints. As a final step we glued the waves, the treasure chest and the bushes to the box and added the remaining vinyl to the ducks (eyes and wings) and the coins to the treasure chest.
4. Reflection:
This project was really fun to do for the most part. The most time consuming aspect was laser cutting as one time we spent half a day waiting for the wood, and the rest of the time trying to pry out the already partially cut pieces. We initially intended to add a cam movement for the middle duck, hence the oval, but as we came closer to the end, we realized that the movement was not as smooth and significant enough to include for the final design. Overall, we are really happy with the outcome and would consider a career in toy making if bioengineering falls through.
5. Materials and cost:
Materials used (all provided by the OEDK):
- 3 40x28x1/8 inch plywood = $5 each at the OEDK = $15
- Dowels (0.25” and 0.375”) =~$1
- Wood glue= $2.48
- Less than 12×12 inches of a vinyl sticker= $1.75
- Spray paint (yellow, white, green and blue) = $4×4 = $16
- Paint $9 (blue paint)
- Tape: $2
- Time = 35h x $20/h= $700
- Total = $747.23
Attachments:
- Movie:
- AI Files:
- PowerPoint
